Education

Does racial diversity improve academic outcomes? A natural experiment in higher education classrooms

From ScienceDirect: “Point estimates suggest that replacing one White student with one minority student in a typical conference increases graduation GPA by an average of 0.024 … I find a beneficial impact of diversity on both first year GPA (statistically significant at 5% level) and writing course grade (statistically significant at 10% level) for female students. For example, female students experience an average marginal effect of diversity on first year GPA that is almost two and a half times the average treatment effect point estimate, while male students experience no statistically significant diversity effect. … I also find that White students in higher diversity classrooms are less likely to take up majors in literature, language, and arts, but are more likely to take up majors in social sciences, history, and philosophy.”

View the full article from ScienceDirect.